A Summary Care Record is a way of telling health and care staff important information about a person.
It tells staff caring for someone about their medicines and allergies. This means they can look after the person if they are not at their usual doctor’s surgery.
For people with a learning disability, autism or both a doctor might ask if they can add some additional information to the summary care record. This will mean if a person needs treatment by other services like emergency or urgent care they will have more information about them.
More information about the Summary Care Record, including an easy read leaflet, is available on the NHS Digital website.
Information for health professionals
You can help people with a learning disability by asking if you can add additional information to their summary care record.
Any information from the person’s GP record which could help staff support the person better will be automatically added. This could be things like how they want to be communicated with or any reasonable adjustments that need to be made.
To make sure other NHS services can access this information you need to opt in to adding additional information to the Summary Care Record. There is a question on the annual health check national template to encourage more people to agree to having additional information added to their Summary Care Record.
More information for GPs about using summary care records to make more information available in care settings is available on the NHS Digital website.
Opting out
The purpose of SCR is to improve the care that you receive, however, if you don’t want to have an SCR you have the option to opt out. If this is your preference please inform your GP or fill in an SCR opt-out form and return it to your GP practice.
Online form to opt-out of the Summary Care Record.
Regardless of your past decisions about your Summary Care Record consent preferences, you can change your mind at any time. You can choose any of the following options:
To have a Summary Care Record with Additional Information shared. This means that any authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals will be able to see a enriched Summary Care Record if they need to provide you with direct care.
To opt-out of having a Summary Care Record altogether. This means that you do not want any information shared with other authorised, registered and regulated health and care professionals involved in your direct care, including in an emergency.
To make these changes, you should inform your GP practice or complete the SCR patient consent preferences form and return it to your GP practice.